[emathias]

Seattle and Portland have very similar cultures, and some other similarities that derive from that. They are nowhere near identical, but one could really write many pages about similarities.

Originally Posted by suburbanite

I've always found Chicago - Toronto a somewhat lazy comparison just based on being two large cities on a lake. In terms of urban layout, transportation, and architecture I find them pretty distinct. Apart from certain areas of the financial cores which could be reasonably interchanged (even then the rivers give Chicago a different feel), I don't think there are many places you could drop a person who was decently familiar with the two and they wouldn't be able to quickly discern which city it was.

The shape of their metro-style transit is quite similar, and they're both on Great Lakes and similarly sized. After that, though, they begin to diverge rapidly. The way they interact with their lakes is different, the way they implement high-rises is different. Their standard building stock is different (side-by-side "terrace" homes for Toronto, bungalows and 2-level duplexes aka two-flats or three-flats for much of Chicago). More brick in Chicago. Culture is also pretty different as Chicago is very American and Toronto is definitely a Commonwealth city. Toronto had many more East Asians, Chicago is very Latino.

Originally Posted by pj3000

It's even worse (and much more of a stretch) when people on here act like Miami is just like Chicago...

I actually think Miami and Chicago are as similar as Toronto and Chicago, although neither are really all that similar. A short list of similarities can be made, but the more you dig into them, the more different they become.

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Idk, Chicago and Toronto to me are essentially twins. They seem incredibly similar.

No, they're really not. Especially if you've actually been to both. They have some similarities on paper, but very few in reality.

Originally Posted by Chisouthside

Mexico City and New York City

Mexico City delegaciones function much like NYC borroughs
Pretty expansive Subway system
cultural capitals for their respective countries
absurd density
Street food all over the place
Center for capital and huge concentration of rich people
Multiple skylines(though NYCs are much taller)

I see the LA-MX comparison much more than the NYC-MX comparison. When I visited Mexico City, absolutely nothing reminded me of New York. Both have a lot of museums and serve as cultural capitals for their countries but after that ...

Originally Posted by JAYNYC

Said no one, ever.

At it's peak Chicago probably was in the top five. It's still arguably in the top 25 or so, and top ten for financial importance. If Chicago just disappeared a huge hunk of the United States would suddenly be much farther from the global economy.

Originally Posted by JAYNYC

Look, I get it. Chicago residents would much prefer the world sees Chicago as comparable to NYC than the world sees Chicago comparable to Toronto, but facts are facts, and if we were to base the comparison purely on skyscraper numbers alone (which, to be clear, I am not, as I see far more aesthetic similarities beyond that), the only reasonable comparison is Chicago/Toronto.

Totals:
NYC - 1,356
Chicago - 520
Toronto - 374

Numbers of tall buildings have jack squat to do with city similarities. And even if they did, if you switch from skyscrapers to just high-rises
suddenly Toronto leaps far ahead of Chicago.

I live in Chicago and while there are ways New York and Chicago can be compared, at the end of the day, they're quite different.

Question: is it New York or Chicago where the most famous shopping Avenue in the City stretches past the building that was second-tallest in the city until recently, going past a modern or contemporary art museum that's about a block off the street, and keeps going in a straight line then forming a border of a huge rectangular park that serves as the city's front yard, right past the cities biggest, most internationally recognized museum before arriving in the City's most historic African-American district?

(It's both. Both 5th Avenue and Michigan Avenue fit that description, with New York having the Empire State Building, MoMA, Central Park, the Met, and Harlem, while Chicago has the (formerly known as) Hancock Building, Museum of Contemporary Art, Grant Park, the Art Institute, and Bronzeville. As a bonus, both Avenues start at or within a few blocks of a "Washington Square Park.")